Slam Dunk 2

Takehiko Inoue – Viz – 2009 – 31 volumes

Oh, Sakuragi.  I like Eyeshield 21 much better than this series, but they succeed for the same reason: they both have incredibly entertaining characters.  The ones in Eyeshield 21 are more characters in the “euphamism for weirdos” sense than the supporting cast in Slam Dunk, but Hanamichi is better than almost everyone but Haruma, and he’s the main character, which makes up for it.  I don’t have that much to say about that, so the rest of this is just me whimsically narrating the volume.  Or at least I thought it was whimsical.  I try not to do this, usually, since I hate reviews that are just summaries, but all I have to say is that it’s funny.  I’ve written six other reviews, so you can read more serious comments, many of which were not made at two in the morning.

This volume resolves his fake running away from the team plotline (which didn’t fool anyone considering there are 30 volumes of basketball left), and we get to see Sakuragi bounce off the walls at a scrimmage between first years and upperclassman.  He hates Rukawa, of course, but then does he have to root for Gori?  He lives a hard life, and Rukawa makes his lady love Haruko’s eyes turn into hearts, so the hate stands.  He gets to play for a few minutes, and he delivers a glorius slam dunk to the top of Gori’s head.

There’s a subplot in the second half of the volume that involves the Judo team (headed by a childhood friend/rival of Gori’s) attempting to recruit Sakuragi.  The best part of this is that Sakuragi delivers a firm “no” every time, and then gets to beat up the Judo team.  He bonds with the captain and they trade stories about how lame Gori is.  Gori watches, and tries to remember these bizarre slights from childhood.  It’s pretty funny stuff, and it nearly made me laugh out loud.  It’s hard not to root for Sakuragi, with his childlike logic and complete disregard for how uncool everything that comes out of his mouth is.  Calling himself a Basketballman is a good example.  I can’t tell if this was cool at one time, or if it was supposed to be something else in Japanese, but it’s so uncool, and he says it so seriously, that it fits him perfectly.

And a final note: possibly the best line of the series so far, from the captain of the Judo team about how he will snatch Sakuragi away from the basketball team: “He won’t be satisfied diddling with balls!”

Ahhhh.